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Crime

Ex-Greek PM hurt in car blast

May 25, 2017

Greek former Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and two guards were injured after an explosive device went off in a car, media have reported. Papademos also once headed the Greek central bank.

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Griechenland Athen Anschlag auf Premierminister Lucas Papademos
Image: Picture-Alliance/AP Photo/Y. Karahalis

A letter bomb went off in a car in which former Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos was traveling in central Athens on Thursday, causing him to be hospitalized for injuries to his chest, abdomen and legs, police and hospital officials said.

Papademos was wounded while reading his post in the back of the car. according to the police. Two of his guards who were in the car with him also sustained light injuries.

"I undreservedly condemn the attack against Lucas Papademos (and) wish a speedy recovery to him and the people accompanying him," tweeted Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who is attending a NATO summit in Brussels. Parliament also interrupted its session to condemn the attack.

State news agency ANA said Papademos was undergoing surgery for abdominal and leg injuries.

The Evangelismos Hospital in Athens called the injuries superficial, and said his condition did not "inspire concern."

Various high positions

Papademos, 69, was prime minister of Greece from November 2011 to  May 2012 at the height of Greece's debt crisis. During his time in the position, the government negotiated a huge and controversial write-down of the country's privately held debt that led to Greek social insurance funds losing millions of euros.

Griechenland Lucas Papademos ARCHIV
Papademos was prime minister for just six monthsImage: Getty Images/AFP/L. Gouliamaki

He was also criticized for letting members of a far-right party join his coalition government.

Previously, he served as governor of the Bank of Greece, then as vice president of the European Central Bank up to 2010.

No claim as yet

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.

In March, a secretary at the International Monetary Fund in Paris was injured by a letter bomb sent by the Greek anarchist group Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei. The group, considered a terror organization by Washington, also sent letter bombs to foreign embassies in Greece and to European leaders in 2010.

On Tuesday, an envelope containing bullets and addressed to Greece’s general secretary for public revenue was intercepted at a post office branch in Athens.

tj/sms (AFP, Reuters, dpa, AP)